Fight fungus gnats: How to get rid of the little flies

The little flies like to colonize the soil in the flower pots of our plants. We reveal how to fight fungus gnats and their larvae naturally and get rid of them permanently.

Many plant lovers know and fear them: the little flies that suddenly climb out of the potting soil and multiply at breakneck speed. Fungus gnats occur again and again, especially in potted plants with a planter in living rooms. We will show you how an infestation occurs and how you can fight fungus gnats and prevent another infestation.

Fungus Gnats: Wanted Poster

The family of fungus gnats (Sciaridae), colloquially also known as mourning flies, occur in nature primarily in damp habitats such as forests, moors and wet meadows. The adult black flies are up to seven millimeters long and lay their eggs in moist soil. Outdoors this happens in May to June, but in houses or greenhouses all year round. A female can lay up to 200 transparent eggs. The fungus gnat larvae, which hatched about a week after the eggs were laid, live in the ground and decompose organic material such as leaves, fungal threads or roots. It is precisely these larvae that become problematic in the soil of indoor plants. In the absence of sufficient dead plant material and fungal mycelium, the hungry larvae encroach on living plant roots, damaging our beloved green fellow residents. In addition, the black mosquitoes in the potting soil are perceived as annoying and disgusting - especially when they appear in large numbers.

Notice: All amateur mushroom growers should be told that the larvae of fungus gnats especially love the mycelium of mushrooms as a food source. It is not for nothing that the mosquito is called "fungus gnat" in English, i.e. "mushroom mosquito".

How to recognize fungus gnats (larvae)

The small black flies in the potting soil are clearly visible to the naked eye. They usually stay close to the ground, walking around on the soil and the pot and flying around, tumbling slightly when you water the infested plant or move the pot.

To detect a fungus gnat infestation before mass reproduction occurs, we recommend yellow boards like those from our Plantura Shop, which are conveniently delivered to your home. Yellow boards are coated with glue so that the adult flies stick to the boards. Incidentally, in order to catch and discover fungus gnats as effectively as possible, the yellow boards are best attached directly above the surface of the potting soil, for example with small wooden skewers. If you discover the first fungus gnats, you should start fighting them quickly.

After hatching, the larvae of the fungus gnat stay in the ground and can only be seen when repotting. The fungus gnat larvae are worm-like in shape, white in color and up to five millimeters long.
Especially with young plants, an infestation can quickly lead to wilting or the death of the plant, even though there is a good water supply. This also indicates an infestation by fungus gnats.

tip: Often, fungus gnats with fruit flies mistaken. However, fruit flies need fruits or vegetables as a food source and therefore do not stay in or near houseplants, which makes the distinction easy to make.

Fighting fungus gnats: How to get rid of them

Have you noticed an infestation of fungus gnats and are now considering whether and how you can combat it? The first thing to do is to decide whether fighting it makes sense at all. In the garden and on the balcony, the small black flies almost never multiply to large populations, which is why there is usually no need to fight them. If fungus gnats have nested in the soil of your indoor plants, it looks different: in the warm house and in the Wonderfully water-retaining potting soil, the problem is guaranteed to grow without your intervention, rather than by itself take care of.

What to do if you notice a mild to moderate infestation:

As long as you can observe the "mushroom flies" mainly in the pot and in the immediate vicinity of the plant, the infestation is not yet very severe. In order to prevent a heavy infestation, you should nevertheless take action against the "fungus flies" as soon as possible with biological pesticides. Fight fungus gnats with home remedies is also still possible with a light to medium infestation. Our Plantura Bio Fungus Gnat Free Neem can provide very good service with a light to medium infestation and protects your plants and their roots with natural active ingredients from the neem tree. We describe the application in more detail below.

What to do if you notice a severe infestation:

When is it actually a severe infestation? If you encounter the stumbling black flies in other areas of the apartment, then their breeding ground is already closed small" for the existing population and many individuals are looking for a new home - a clear sign of a strong one infestation Provide another clear clue yellow boards, which you can use to monitor infestations indoors and in the greenhouse. If the adhesive panels are already overflowing with the small black flies after 2 to 3 days, there is a severe infestation. In addition to the use of biological pesticides, a severe infestation also requires a number of other measures, since the preparations alone can hardly achieve complete control.

In the event of a severe infestation, proceed as follows:

1. Repot infested plants, remove the soil from the roots as much as possible, if necessary under running, lukewarm water; freshly potted plants as a precaution once with a Medication against fungus gnats treat.
2. Plants in the immediate vicinity of the heavily infested plants either repot directly or treat with pesticides against fungus gnats.
3. Without exception, with every plant in the apartment, the surface of the potting soil should be at least 0.5 cm thick cover with a dry material, for example with crushed expanded clay, expanded clay balls, lava chippings or decorative gravel.
4. Each pot in the apartment with one yellow board equip the yellow board should be positioned close to the surface of the ground to directly intercept flies emerging from the ground.
5. If you find fungus gnats on the yellow boards, use a pesticide again.

Fight fungus gnats naturally

To have Home remedies for fungus gnats and prevention fails or you want to be on the safe side, you should resort to real plant protection products. However, we recommend using synthetic pesticides, especially in living rooms or the house garden refrain from disproportionate risk to you as a user and playing children or pets to suspend. Instead, we recommend biological remedies against fungus gnats.

A highly effective and natural method to combat fungus gnats is the use of neem preparations. The seed oil of the neem tree contains the active ingredient azadirachtin, which acts on the sciarid larvae in the soil. Our Plantura Organic Fungus Gnat Free Neem is based on this neem oil and offers you a reliable and organic certified method to get rid of fungus gnats. You can use organic sciarid-free neem both indoors and outdoors.

Our Organic fungus gnat free is not dangerous to bees and ensures that the larvae of the fungus gnat, which are harmful to plants, stop eating quickly. The ease of use allows you to accurately dose for an optimal effect. For ornamental plants in your home, 15 milliliters mixed with three liters of water are sufficient to grow around 1 m² to treat surface. Simply pour the emulsion onto the soil of the affected plant. When using our organic pest-free neem, please pay attention to the application recommendations in the package leaflet.

Fight fungus gnats with nematodes

An effective, safe and simple control method is the use of insect-damaging nematodes. They really do not pose any danger to other plants, insects or even pets.
An example of this is ours Plantura SF nematodes against fungus gnats, codling moth & ants. The predatory nematodes of the species Steinernema feltiae After application, infest the larvae of the fungus gnat and multiply in them, which leads to the death of the larvae. The first larvae die off after about 3 days and since the nematodes continue to multiply in the larvae, the success of the treatment increases until the nematodes can no longer find any larvae. Incidentally, the tiny threadworms are very easy to distribute with the irrigation water. They can harm neither humans nor animals - they are specialized solely on the larvae of some pests and have been used successfully in organic farming for many years.

tip: When using SF nematodes, ensure that the substrate is at least 12 °C warm and direct Sun exposure should be avoided during application as the nematodes are very sensitive to it UV radiation are.

Prevent flies in the potting soil

Fungus gnats only become a problem when the flies find permanently wet soil. The best prevention is therefore appropriate watering behavior: Always allow the surface of the soil to dry slightly before watering again. Firstly, the sciarid fly larvae need moist soil to live, and secondly, the eggs are laid directly on the soil's surface. If the substrate is too dry, the larvae will die immediately after hatching.

As a preventive measure, you can also apply a 0.5 centimeter layer of sand, lava grit or broken expanded clay to the soil. This means that the surface is always dry and therefore unattractive to fungus gnats. To use this method effectively, houseplants should only be watered from below over the saucer or planter.

You can also bring in fungus gnat eggs through potting soil. Under favorable breeding conditions, the fungus gnats can penetrate through small ventilation holes into earth sacs and lay their eggs while the sacs are still being stored. This often happens with the unprotected stored earth in hardware stores. Unfortunately, during transport and storage at home, even with high-quality soils such as our Plantura potting soil, an infestation with fungus gnats cannot be ruled out.
If you buy new potted plants, we recommend that you repot them directly into uninfested soil, which will also ensure that your new plant grows more vigorously.

Tip:If your potting soil is infested with fungus gnats, you can use the moistened soil for smaller quantities in the microwave (highest level for seven minutes) or in the oven (200 °C for 20 minutes) sterilize.

Summary: Preventing fungus gnats

• Always let the soil dry out before the next watering
• Spread a layer of sand, lava grit or broken expanded clay on the potting soil
• Water the plants over the planter and saucer
• Check planting soil and sterilize in microwave or oven
• Always repot potted plants after purchase

Helpful tips as you popular Repot indoor plants properly, can be found in our special article.